Modi's visit cement relations with African nations

Wednesday 01st August 2018 02:46 EDT
 
 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to three African countries last week came as part of his remarkable outreach to the continent in the last three years. The visit is a part of the PM's ongoing process of putting Africa on the priority list, and is also an indication of intent of challenging China's geopolitical and trading pre-eminence in Africa. The trip came at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping is also on a four nation tour in the continent. Starting from Rwanda on July 23, Modi visited Uganda and then South Africa, where he also attended the BRICS summit. He completed the tour on the 27th.

The first Indian Prime Minister to visit, Modi shone bright in Rwandan capital of Kigali, where he met President Paul Kagame. Both sides signed eight agreements in an effort to bolster bilateral cooperation between the countries. Modi also gifted 200 cows to villagers as a part of Rwandan government's Girinka Programme. India also extended a $200 million Line of Credit to Rwanda out of which, the first line of credit amounted to $100 million for the development of industrial parks and Kigali Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in Rwanda. The second credit will be directed to build agricultural infrastructure. An announcement to open an Indian High Commission in Rwanda was also made.

UGANDA

Marking the 25th high-level bilateral visit from India to Africa in just four years, Modi underlined a significant build-up in India's ties with the resource-rich continent. His Uganda stopover was the second leg of the tour. He arrived in Kampala, where he met with the Indian community and also participated in a Uganda-India business summit. Uganda has a substantial Indian community, including a group of industrialists who have flourished in the years since they returned to claim assets that had been seized during the reign of dictator Idi Amin.

Addressing the Uganda-India Business Forum, Modi said his country is willing to address the current trade imbalance with Uganda. “If I compare India-Uganda trade ties, I can see that we are in a win-win situation. But we are falling short and to correct that we need to strategise,” he said. He said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is right in saying there is trade imbalance between both the countries and added, “India is willing to take steps to address the trade deficit between India and Uganda.” He exhorted the business community to fully exploit the favourable conditions for doing business between India and Uganda. “India is ready to work with Uganda in the fields of capacity building, human resource development, skill development, innovation and also in adding value to the abundant natural resources available in this country,” he said.

The PM also stressed on innovation saying that without it the world cannot go ahead. “Uganda can go ahead if the youth of Uganda and India work together,” he said, adding that the East African country can play an important role in the overall development of Africa. Museveni, on his part, while inspiring the business community from both countries, said, “You are in the right place in the right time.”

Earlier, Modi extended two lines of credit worth nearly $200 million to Uganda and signed a defence cooperation agreement with the African nation as he held wide-ranging talks with Museveni and discussed ways to strengthen the ties. Both the leaders held one-on-one meeting, followed by delegation-level talks to comprehensively review all aspects of bilateral relations. Then, they signed four MoUs in the areas of defence cooperation, visa exemption for official and diplomatic passport holders, cultural exchange programme and material testing laboratory.

Modi said India would extend two lines of credit to Uganda, one of $141 million for electricity lines and another of $64 million for agriculture and dairy production. He lauded the time-tested relationship between the countries and said they should strengthen cooperation in the field of military training. “India will assist Uganda in training, capacity building, infrastructure development, IT and development initiatives,” he said. Modi also announced that India will provide a cancer therapy machine to the cancer institute in Kampala. “This will help Uganda as well as other African countries,” he said.

SOUTH AFRICA

Narendra Modi was accorded a warm welcome as he arrived in Pretoria on a three-day visit to attend the BRICS Summit hosted by South Africa. He met SA President Cyril Ramaphosa and the two leaders discussed ways to expand the bilateral ties in a number of sectors, including trade and investment, IT and defence. Three MoUs were signed on cooperation in exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, setting up of Gandhi-Mandela Centre of specialisation for artisan skills and agricultural research and education.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, “India and South Africa are proud inheritors of legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. Modi and Ramaphosa discussed expansion of our relationship in trade and investment, agriculture and food processing, IT, defence and people-to-people contacts.” Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said both the nations expressed satisfaction at the growth in trade and investment, besides improvement in the people-to-people relation. “President Ramaphosa actually said India-South Africa relations may be new in terms of re-establishment of diplomatic relations but are in fact very deep-rooted in history. Now what it requires is nurturing, it needs to be watered time to time and such meetings help in that process,” he said. Gokhale said Prime Minister Modi entirely agreed with the South African leader on this, and noted a "very positive" trend on investments and trade.

BRICS SUMMIT

Modi addressed the BRICS summit in which he reaffirmed India’s commitment to multilateralism, international trade and rules-based world order. He also expressed India’s desire to work with BRICS nations on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and called for sharing the best practices and policies in the area. “At the session with fellow BRICS leaders, I shared my thoughts on various global issues, the importance of technology, skill development and how effective multilateral cooperation creates a better world,” PM Modi tweeted after the session.

Nearly 1,000 delegates, including heads of state from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa had gathered at the Sandton Convention Centre for the meeting. The theme of this year was ‘BRICS Africa’.

MODI MEETS CHINESE PRESIDENT XI

Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated their commitment to directing their militaries to improve communication and ensure peace and tranquillity along the border in what was their third bilateral meeting in the past three months. The two met in Johannesburg and agreed to maintain the momentum in ties which has seen several high-level visits from both sides in the past few months.

Briefing reporters about the meeting, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said the two leaders reaffirmed their readiness to give the necessary direction to their militaries to enhance communication between them and to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. “They were satisfied with the efforts being made by the officials of the two sides to strengthen bilateral engagements and to implement some of the understandings and decisions that the two leaders had reached at Wuhan,” he said.

Xi said the Chinese side is ready to work with the Indian side to carry forward the fresh impetus of bilateral relations since their informal meeting in Wuhan, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported. He called on the two sides to strengthen strategic communication, increase mutual trust, promote practical cooperation, as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges, strengthen dialogue and properly manage differences, it said.


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